Katie Zacharia’s debut as the new White House press secretary this week met with derisive reviews after Karoline Leavitt’s replacement stumbled over her words, mistakenly described her husband as “my president”, read out a lengthy statement boasting about President Trump’s dubious achievements and only took three questions before hastily calling the press conference to an end. All were from right wing broadcasters, including Breitbart and NewsNation.
In fact, the only outlet to give her the thumbs-up was the Daily Mail, which favourably contrasted her “very glamorous” appearance with that of the prime minister it now hilariously refers to as “Eyelashes Andy”.
But Zacharia already has more serious questions than whether she’s woefully unqualified for her new job – but whether she was ever qualified for the one she has claimed for years to have.
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Zacharia, a long-time media outrider for Trump, has always described herself as a lawyer. She has repeatedly said she was “outside counsel” to the World Bank and “general counsel” to a California non-profit organisation. Trump himself touted Zacharia as an “attorney” when announcing her appointment.
But this week – as Zacharia held her shambolic first press briefing – the investigative newsletter Popular Information reported that there was no evidence that Zacharia has ever been licensed to practice law in any US state.
When Trump was confronted with Popular Information’s report on the White House by the New York Times’ Shawn McCreesh, the president motioned to Zacharia to answer the question. “You said she’s an attorney. Where did she pass the bar exam? Which state?” asked McCreesh.
“Which state?” repeated Trump. “When I moved to China,” said Zacharia (which geography fans will note is not a US state). But when McCreesh repeated: “Where did you pass the bar exam,” Zacharia dismissively waved the question away.
As Popular Information notes, China’s bar exam is not available to US citizens and US states do not offer bar exams in China. Zacharia did work for Zhong Lun, a Chinese law firm, from 2011 to 2013, but non-Chinese citizens can only practice law at a Chinese firm if they have practiced for two years in their home jurisdiction, among other conditions. The position is called a “foreign legal consultant.”
Popular Information quoted Mark Jia, a Georgetown Law professor who specialises in China, as saying: “Why would a Chinese law firm hire someone to advise on foreign law if they were not licensed to practice that law in their home countries?” – a not unreasonable question, one might think.
Meanwhile, the dire reviews continue to roll in for Zacharia’s performance so far. “The clock is running,” wrote Anthony Scaramucci, who famously lost the same job after just 11 days during Trump’s first term after being recorded accusing Trump aide Steve Bannon of attempting an anatomically unlikely act of self-pleasure. “Thus far 1/11th of a Scaramucci.”
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